Heiress for Hire

January 1, 2006
Amanda Delmar is rich and spoiled. All her father ever expected of her was to be beautiful, so that's what she's done. But at 26, the shallowness of pleasure seeking and shopping till you drop is getting old. Apparently her father agrees, because when Amanda follows a friend to a small town in Ohio, then asks her father to send money, he cuts her off. Suddenly Amanda needs a job. Enter Danny Tucker, a farmer and a decent man who has just discovered that he has an eight-year-old daughter. Against the advice of his parents, he hires Amanda to watch little Piper, and, amazingly enough, she's very good at it. Amanda and Danny are drawn to the qualities they see in each other that no one else can, yet they think they don't belong together. McCarthy transforms what could have been a run-of-the-mill romance with standout characterizations that turn an unlikable girl and a boring guy into two enjoyable, empathetic people who make this romance shine.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)